Questions about the building

Why do we plan to move from our current location?

Our current location is very restricted being on a back road, and has significant parking and traffic problems. We are also largely invisible, which is a problem for St Bs because we have become a large regional church. The single biggest reason to move is that our current location is now unsuitable for us, let alone for the future fulfillment of the vision we believe God has given us as a church.

WAS there no way of converting our current building to become suitable for our needs?

The existing building is beautiful, but we have outgrown it and it is now impeding the mission and ministry of the church.

We did initially look at ways of converting the existing building, and there are certain things that are possible. However because of the size of St Barnabas it would have been extremely difficult to fully provide adequate facilities for the next phase of our church’s life, and we would of course still remain in a back road location.

In addition, converting our existing building would be very expensive and could even end up more costly in terms of the amount of money we would need to raise from donations. So, when looking at everything together we believe that this move is a far better option.

When will the auditorium be added?

We have structured the project into two phases in order to manage the cost of this ambitious scheme. In other words, we have cut our cloth to fit our budget. In practice, this means we have already reviewed and cut or deferred certain optional extras in the design, However the new auditorium is essential to the future of the church so once in Solar House we will continue fundraising until we are able to construct the auditorium. Our aim is to do this by 2020.

What’s the parking like at Solar House?

On Holden Road, parking is very restricted and the road often gets blocked by people coming and going from St Bs.

At Solar House there are about 50 parking spaces (mostly located in an underground car park). Only about two thirds of these will be available to us during the week, but on Sundays we should be able to use all of them.

In the interest of being good neighbours, we have decided to institute a voluntary no parking zone in the side roads nearby Solar House, which we would ask members to observe at all times. However, being next to the town centre, Solar House is within walking distance of several public cars parks and has good bus connections.